


Maybe Someday

by Stormwing_Queen



Category: Tortall - Tamora Pierce
Genre: Canon Compliant, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-10
Updated: 2019-03-10
Packaged: 2019-11-15 05:04:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,308
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18067109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stormwing_Queen/pseuds/Stormwing_Queen
Summary: The many proposals of Numair SalmalinOne shot or could be epilogue of my other fic "Letters Betweens Gods and Lovers"usual disclaimer.. if you recognise it, I don't own it





	1. Chapter 1

It was in the aftermath of battle that he asked her for the first time. Hidden behind the long drooping branches of the willow he held her hands, imploring her to be his forever, to be his wife.

“Maybe Someday” she told him. “But you’re welcome to try and convince me to make it sooner”

The next morning, as they woke from battle-weary sleep in each other’s arms he asked her again. She smiled and kissed him teasingly, not giving him any sort of answer that time. Each morning when he saw her for the first time he would ask her again, and each time she would just kiss him, avoiding the question. Eventually, as they lay entwined together with his fingers in her hair, her head resting on his bare chest he asked her instead why she would not marry him.

“We’re pack. That’s all I need Numair. I don’t need marriage, I don’t need to cage you to know that you love me” she spoke softly, and he understood her then. That was the last day she woke to a proposal.

He was not, however, going to give up; instead, he just changed tactic. Once a year, around the anniversary of the battle of Port Legann, Numair would propose again. The first year, he took her to the same grove where they had met the Undine. After they made love under the stars, as they gazed up at the sky, he asked if she would marry him.

“Still maybe someday my love,” she told him. “I do like this way of trying to convince me though”

The second year he made the ceiling of their rooms shower her with petals for the whole day; still, she told him maybe someday. Keep trying.

The Third year, he asked while they were in bed. He vowed that he would keep her from her release unless she gave him a different answer to “maybe someday”. It was not a vow he was able to keep; by then Daine knew all his weak spots, and she kissed and teased them all mercilessly until he relented.

The Fourth year he planned an elaborate surprise, but Cloud ruins it, telling Daine the plan and complaining that she should put the stork man out of his misery and just marry him. Numair considers it the nicest thing the pony ever says about him.

The fifth year he asks her while tracking griffins, as lies cannot be told around griffins. Again, she tells him “Maybe Someday”, but this time, for the first time, he is satisfied with the answer.

By the sixth year, she looks forward to what he might dream up for the proposal and blushes furiously when he serenades her with courtly love poems her from outside the window. Still, he gets the same answer. The seventh year they are apart, so Numair sends her a book of love poems along with a note telling her the words in the book pale in comparison to his feelings. The next, the book is an erotic pillow book; the letter promising to do whatever she wishes from within its pages if she will marry him.

The ninth year he mumbles the question into her hair while he comforts his crying lover. He asks this time simply because it is now their tradition, caring not for an answer in that moment. He holds her close to his chest and thanks every god he can name that she was not at Haven when it fell.

Months after that, they attend the weddings at Fort Steadfast. “Don’t you wish it was us sweetling” he asks her earnestly as they watch Buri and Raoul, then Neal and Yuki marry in front of the gods. She tells him they don’t need to marry, they already had their wedding night after all. As twilight falls on the celebration, Numair takes her hand and pulls her into the shadows, planning to borrow this wedding night, so she knows what she’s giving up by not having a proper one of her own.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Neal of Queenscove hears the best joke of his life...

Neal had laughed, he had actually laughed at her. Just like her ma was probably laughing at her too right now. How could she have not noticed the signs? “Isn’t your Mother now a goddess of childbirth” Neal had barely been able to get the words out through his laughter.  She played with the claw always around her neck. How did she not notice that it’s companion was missing?

“Plenty of rest for the next week or so and you should be fine,” he had told her once he had stopped laughing, and given her a tea for the headache that was plaguing her. Really there wasn’t much the healer could do about the rest. Returning to their rooms, she found Numair looking over a map of the area, working out where and exactly what he could do to fortify the new camp.

New Hope was a strange little place, not that little was the right word for somewhere with this many people. She and Numair had been here for a few weeks now. After the attack on Haven, they insisted they stick around to sure up defences as much as they could and recruit scouts from the local animals. Like in Dunlath, Daine had been negotiating a truce with the local pack. It was harder here as she did not have the history with this alpha that she did with Brokefang, but she seemed to have worked out. Time would tell if it would last, especially now.

“Did Neal have any answers dearest?” he asked, distracted by the plans he was looking over. She sat on the bed and nodded. Not hearing an audible answer, Numair looked up from his papers. She was white, in shock or scared or both. Moving to sit beside her, he took her face in his hands. “Sweeting, what is it?” he asked, anxious himself now. Had Neal found something serious? He had thought she was just overworked and Neal would tell her to rest. Gods if anything happened to her, he didn’t know what he would do. He could not imagine his world without her

She raised her eyes to his. She needed to be looking right at him when she told him, to make sure of his reaction. She knew her lover could often be an idiot with his words but his eyes never told her anything but unvarnished truth.

“I’m Pregnant”

Numair felt his jaw drop open, and then a huge smile grew on his face as he took in what she had said.

“Really? Truly? But what about Sarra’s charm?” he was earnest in his questions but not upset. She could have seen his happiness in the dark, three days ride away. Daine started to laugh, and kissed him softly.

“Lost it while shapeshifting, either that or Ma got bored waiting for grandbabies” she took his hand and placed it to her belly. He could feel the soft swell in it now, their growing child. “Seems you gave me a wedding night babe without the wedding Master Salmalin.”

He whooped, picking her up and twirling around before kissing her deeply and resting her safe on solid ground again. A sly smile crossed his lips as he dropped to his knees. He kissed the swell of her stomach, and spoke softly. “Littlest magelet, do you think mama will marry me now?”

Daine looked down at her bookish, foolish man as he murmered to the life that grew inside her. In that moment, she was happier than she had ever been. They _were_ pack; they needed no cage to keep them together. All they needed was this. _Still_ she wondered _it might be nice_. Dropping to her knees she kissed the man she loved and whispered softly in his ear.

“One day”

**Author's Note:**

> So my First Fic post. Please be kind with any constructive feedback - I am but a tender soul with no beta.
> 
> Originally the ending of the (IMO) epic EM - FT missing scenes fic I'm working on but liked it better on its own and didn't want to Lord of the Rings's it on the ending. 
> 
> so yeah notes, critic etc welcome as long as its not needlessly mean because you know.. why on earth would you do that?


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